The 15th edition of the Arava International Film Festival will take place from November 4 – 14, 2026, with outdoor screenings in the natural beauty of the Ashush Nature Reserve in the Arava Region of the Southern Negev. The festival will feature premiere screenings of award-winning films. This year – for the first time at the festival – two outdoor screens will be set up, offering a wider selection of films.
Premieres at the festival:
A Woman Unknown, directed by May el-Toukhy, was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Set at the end of the 5-year Nazi occupation of Denmark, the film follows Marie (Mathilde Arcel), a young nanny who is about to marry her employer Christian, a wealthy widower. But secrets from her past threaten her future. Arcel won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for the role of Marie.
Florian Zeller’s (The Father) new psychological thriller Bunker stars Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz as power couple Sofia and Miguel – she’s a literary editor and he’s an architect. Their lives are disrupted when a billionaire (Paul Dano) wants Miguel to design a bunker for him.
Atonement, Reed Van Dyk’s debut feature, was screened in the Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. The war drama is based on a 2012 article in the New Yorker by Dexter Filkins. Starring Boyd Holbrook, Kenneth Branagh, Gheed, and Hiam Abbass, it focuses on a U.S. Marine in the aftermath of a tragic incident in the Iraq War, as he seeks to meet with the surviving family members.
Cédric Kahn’s 15/18 (A Place to Heal) follows Eloïse (Zoé Monpart) and Lucia (Malou Khebizi), two teenage girls admitted to the adolescent psychiatric ward of a public hospital. Khebizi won the Marcello Mastroianni Award at the Venice Film Festival for her portrayal of Lucia.
I Play Rocky, directed by Peter Farrelly, is a biographical drama about the making of Rocky. It’s a remarkable story that follows a young, unknown, Sylvester Stallone as he invents a hero, writes the screenplay, and insists – despite strong resistance, that he must play the lead. Actor Anthony Ippolito delivers a performance so convincing, and looks so much like Stallone – it’s uncanny.
Guria, directed by Levan Koguashvili, is Georgia’s entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards. Set in the early 90s, in post-Soviet Guria, a poor, small town in the rural west, the film focuses on Zuriko (Kakhaber Tcholadze) a hazelnut farmer trying to scrape out a living. Koguashvili will be a guest of the festival, along with the film’s actors and crew for a Georgian celebration.
I’ll Be Gone in June, directed by Katharina Rivilis, in her debut feature. Set in 2001, the coming-of-age film stars Naomi Cosma as Franny, a German exchange student who dreams of New York, but arrives in the quiet desert town of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Earth to Michael, directed by Nico López-Alegría & ZZ, is a documentary film in which López-Alegría explores his relationship with his father Michael, an astronaut. Michael last went to space when Nico was six. During his time in orbit, their family broke apart, and Michael never came home. Now he’s headed back to space, 15 years later.
Elephants in the Fog, Abinash Bikram Shah’s directorial debut, premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the section’s Jury Prize. Set in Nepal, trans woman Pirati (Pushpa Thing Lama), the matriarch of a Kinnar community — legally recognized as part of the country’s meti “third gender”, dreams of escaping to live with the man she loves. But when one of her daughters goes missing, she must investigate and choose between her desire for freedom and her responsibilities to her community.
Leading films from major festivals include:
Fjord – the new film by Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, stars Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve; Minotaur, directed by exiled Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, was awarded the Grand Prix at the 79th Cannes Film Festival; Fatherland, starring Sandra Hüller – directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, who won the Award for Best Director at the 79th Cannes Film Festival; All of a Sudden, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, and starring Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto, who shared the prize for Best Actress at the 79th Cannes Film Festival; Yellow Letters – by İlker Çatak (The Teacher’s Lounge) won the Golden Bear at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, the film is centered on Derya (Özgü Namal) and Aziz (Tansu Biçer), an artist couple who lose their jobs and home when they are targeted by the state.
The festival will host an homage to Billy Wilder, the great American screenwriter and director, who received seven Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and the Palme d’Or. Four of his films will be screened at the festival: Double Indemnity (1944), Sabrina (1954), Some Like it Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960). The homage will be dedicated to the memory of journalist, editor, and artistic consultant Edna Fainaru z”l, who passed away last June, and, along with her husband Dan, was part of the Arava Festival programming team for many years.
The Classic Film program will include: Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal; Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; and Martin Scorsese’s After Hours. Opening night on November 4th will feature films produced with the support of the Negev Film Fund, and were filmed in the Israeli desert – What is to Come, directed by Ruthy Pribar, is centered on a woman who finds herself suddenly alone after forty years of marriage, and sets out on an unexpected journey of discovery; in Shiran Sharabany’s film Spikes (Zebrot), three childhood friends from a remote village decide to flee their homes and hitchhike toward a costume rave party in the South. Over a three-day journey set against the diverse landscape, they face a series of encounters that accelerate the hidden tensions between them. As the road unfolds, their lifelong, unquestioned bond begins to fracture, and their friendship is pushed to a point of no return. In addition to the two features, a selection of Israeli short films will be screened.
The Arava International Film Festival is the initiative of producer Eyal Shiray in cooperation with the Central Arava Regional Council. The festival is supported by the Central Arava Regional Council, The Ministry of Culture and Sport Film Council, The Ministry of Tourism, The Office for the Development of the Negev and Galilee, the Ministry of Regional Cooperation, and Mifal HaPais.
Information on the festival and local accommodations may be found on the festival website: www.aravaff.co.il
